Music by Rob Campbell
Not bad for a beginner…
I played the guitar a bit in my teens, but I never really applied myself much, took lessons, or expanded my goals beyond being a cool guy with a guitar. Which I wasn’t.
In March of 2020 I grabbed an acoustic guitar we had bought for my son that he had never taken an interest in and started strumming. I got some guidance from Marty Music lessons on YouTube and eventually started taking lessons from a great local teacher, Bruce Gilsenan, who really shaped my work.
While I wanted to learn songs by Mark Knoppfler, Willie Nelson, John Hiatt, and a lot of other greats, I eventually realized that I needed to write my own music. I had written some decent poetry years ago, but eventually stopped because I wasn’t sure what to do with it all and thought it was maybe a waste of time. Writing anything is never waste of time, but that’s where my head was at.
So I’m building this site as a way to track my progress. Maybe eventually it will have other purposes, but I’ll keep focused on the idea of writing about my writing/playing and posting some tracks.
Thanks for visiting.
Stuff I Use
Gear and software and stuff
Geetars:
So I’m building this site as a way to track my progress. Maybe eventually it will have other purposes, but I’ll keep focused on the idea of writing about my writing/playing and posting some tracks.
G&L Stratocaster: I bought this from the collection of Chris Berry, who has inspired and encouraged my start in music early in the pandemic. This thing has a great sound and feel. It’s been instrumental in getting the feel for the sound I’m looking for. As one friend put it, “You don’t have to be great, you just have to be good enough to play what you hear in your head.” A quality guitar of this caliber keeps the envelope high in terms of what I hear and gives me confidence.
Fender FA100: My wife and I bought this for my son a few years ago, and he never touched it. In March of 2020 I started messing around with it, trying to play a few tunes and get my chops up a bit more.
Epiphone Special II Les Paul: I got this as a spare, an alternate sound to work with. When I was a teen, I had a friend who had an actual Gibson Les Paul that he was pretty proud of, noting its weight and the overdriven sound it produced. None of that made a bit of sense to me at the time, but now I understand a lot more what that means to the sound this thing is capable of. I had locking tuners put on it at some point early on.